Biz Options 4U is a new B2B website portal giving businesses access to a vast array of business products and services. The site covers almost every business need from loans to phones, car purchases to accountancy services and from asset finance to website design or web-marketing and is free at the point of use. The site targets the estimated 4.9m SMEs requiring specialist business services. The portal offers numerous business products on one website and in addition offers businesses the opportunity to have their products and services promoted on the site and provide Introducers the ability to earn money by referring their clients to the product and service providers present on the portal.

Over the next three months, as we introduce the site to the market, there is a roll out program which will increase the number of product and service providers on the site. The expanded site will include an auction site where businesses can auction their products and services on-line.

Introducers and the Partnership and Affiliate Programme
Biz Options enables Introducers to earn referral income by introducing business via the website. We also have a ‘Partnership and Affiliate’ program which enables our Business Partners to earn commission by referring their clients to the site. Affiliates can promote their products and services via the site but do not participate in cross referrals and referral income.

Biz Option’s CEO, Alan Hill says:

“The Biz Options 4U concept came about because four companies wanted to offer their services to each other’s client base but the process was at best disjointed and at worst nigh on impossible until we decided to build a site which enabled them to pool their own vast databases into one and promote services to each other on one seamless platform. Once the site was developed, the project snowballed and we now have many additional partners such as The Fuel Card People, AIMS Accountants, Peninsula as well as Commercial Lawyers, Business Insurance providers and many others. Our target is to increase the number and range of service providers whilst at the same time significantly increasing our subscriber data base from about the 280,000 we have today to over one million by the end of 2014.”

At the start of 2013:
• There were an estimated 4.9 million businesses in the UK which employed 24.3 million people, and had a combined turnover of £3,300 billion.
• SMEs accounted for 99.9% of all private sector businesses in the UK, 59.3% of private sector employment and 48.1% of private sector turnover.
• SMEs employed 14.4 million people and had a combined turnover of £1,600 billion.
• Small businesses alone accounted for 47% of private sector employment and 33.1% of turnover.
• Of all businesses, 62.6% per cent (3.7 million) were sole proprietorships, 28.5% (1.4 million) were companies and 8.9% per cent (434,000) partnerships.
• There were 891,000 businesses operating in the construction sector - nearly 20% of all businesses.
• In the financial and insurance sector, only 27.5% of employment was in SMEs. However, in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector virtually all employment (95.4%) was in SMEs.
• Only 22.5% of private sector turnover was in the arts, entertainment and recreation activities, while 92.7% was in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector.
• With 841,000 private sector business, London had more firms than any other region in the UK. The south east had the second largest number of businesses with 791,000. Together these regions account for almost a third of all firms.
(Firms - micro: 0-9 employees, small: 10-49 employees, medium: 50-249 employees)
(Updated October 2013)
Figures obtained from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.